Ozarks: Full Circle

The Ozarks have long been an isolated part of the country. Steep mountains break up the landscape into hills and hollows, making each little town into its own microcosm. Here, families have stayed in the same hollows for generations with little influence from the outside world, which means that their daily life is steeped in the past. In this episode, SOTRU goes deep into the lives of people who live with the ghosts of their past.

Replace the word hollow with holler, and you’ve got my experience in the trailer park out on F Highway and in Springfield (“the big city”) for 3 years. I have a love/hate relationship with SW MO. I worked cleaning hotel rooms on Hwy 76 in Branson. I still think about the ladies I worked with. As far as MO DOC, Missouri is still locking up people for marijuana possession. Cindy describes the Ozarks rather accurately. I have walked a mile and a half in Cindy’s shoes.

S.A.G. 415

Silver Dollar City AKA Steal Your Dollar Holler!

Kira Kupfersberger

Hrm. I grew up in the Ozarks of Northwest Arkansas and I’d just like to voice my disappointment that these stories – minus the musical gatherings and the brief bit of poetry – are so focused on drugs and jail and violence. There are such gracious and worthy aspects of Ozark life and relationships that aren’t so one-sided. Though your program started out with the precept of giving the Ozarks a chance, you then chose stories which, while ultimately kind of positive, also highlight aspects of the Ozarks that I would say add to the idea that the Ozarks are full of meth addicts, wife-beaters and alcoholics (recovered!). I invite you to explore the Ozarks of Arkansas – music festivals and Victorian architecture in Eureka Springs, old dialects still alive in small towns, Fayetteville, Bentonville, the success of the Ozarks with Wal-Mart – the pollution of the rivers by hog farms – even the dark sides – history with racism and KKK there. I’d love to hear you scratch a bit more beneath the surface of a very rich and unusual place. Nice to hear mentions of the caves and Silver Dollar City.

SOTRU

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